A Date? (2)
Anyway, after finishing up the grocery shopping at the mart—
"This place is really good!"
"Is that so…"
Taejin found himself being led by Han Sohee's hand all the way to a gukbap restaurant she'd recommended.
No, but seriously—how does this woman even know where the good gukbap places are?
"Mom! I'm here!"
"My girl~ What took you so long~?!"
Huh. Family?
The moment they stepped inside, the two of them were so warmly familiar with each other that Taejin wondered if they might be related—but no matter how he looked at it, their appearances didn't match up as mother and daughter.
"What's this? You brought your husband along?!"
"Ah—no! He's just someone I know! I brought him so I could treat him to a meal!"
"Oh my, oh my, and here I thought this girl wasn't the type…"
"I'm telling you it's not like that!"
Probably just a shop owner she was close with, Taejin figured.
"Sorry to keep you waiting!"
"Not at all. Watching the two of you talk was pretty entertaining."
Han Sohee came bustling over to where Taejin was already seated, hurriedly setting down her bags, and the sight of her flustered scramble was a little funny.
"Pfft."
"Ah! You just laughed!"
"Must be your imagination."
"No, it is not my imagination!"
They bickered like that for a little while.
"Come to think of it—do you come here often?"
Taejin finally asked the question that had been nagging at him.
Han Sohee nodded.
"Yes. After a gate raid, everyone's completely wiped out, so the only food you can get in bulk and eat quickly is either fast food or something like gukbap."
Ah, so that was it. After a fight, starving and exhausted, she'd gotten used to filling up on gukbap that came out fast.
"Well… I also just like gukbap, though."
Taejin nodded at that.
They made small talk for a bit longer—
"Here you go. Brachion gukbap and Minotaur gukbap."
They hadn't even been talking that long, and the food was already out. Clearly, that was one reason she was a regular here.
In any case, the two of them dug into their respective bowls at full speed.
Come to think of it, Taejin hadn't eaten breakfast before heading out, so his stomach had been screaming for food the whole time. And as for Sohee—
"Slurp— mm! The broth here really is the best~"
She ate like a true Hunter. Which, well, she was.
For reference, Hunters have a basal metabolic rate roughly double that of ordinary people. Taejin didn't fully understand the mechanics, but apparently they convert food into mana or something along those lines. So inside gates they mostly lived off high-calorie bars, and in daily life they ate in massive quantities.
Watching her put on a proper food-show right in front of him, Taejin found himself thinking—
This is a little rude, but… is all that calorie intake going straight into…
"Slurp. Why? Is there something on my clothes?"
"Ah—no. Just lost in thought for a second."
"What kind of thought is that~"
Honestly, any man would have thought the same thing.
***
And so, after thoroughly polishing off a meal with Sohee—
Leaving her behind as she inhaled the extra bowls she'd ordered ahead of time, Taejin went and paid first.
For the record, the card he used was naturally Gicheol's. The total came out a little higher than the pizza he'd originally planned to buy, but it was still within the range of a joke Gicheol would let slide. Probably fine.
After settling the bill, grabbing a cup of coffee, and stepping outside, Taejin thought to himself—
That wasn't half bad.
His first meal with the Saintess—more precisely, with Han Sohee—had gone better than expected.
For the record, up until now the only real conversations he'd had were the occasional chats with Seoyoung in the smoking area. There had been that one incident, of course, but that barely counted.
It'd be nice if Seoyoung came along next time too.
Taejin sipped his coffee, thinking that.
And as he was sipping—
"Ah! Taejin! You already paid, didn't you?!"
Sohee came bolting out of the restaurant the moment she realized he'd covered the bill.
"I was going to pay for it!"
At the sight of her, Taejin grinned and said—
"Doesn't matter. It wasn't even my card."
"Then that makes it even worse!"
"I was going to buy something expensive anyway, so it's fine."
"But still…"
In the end, all she could do was stew in frustration, making little ugh sounds.
"Then next time, I'm paying!"
"Sure, sure. Whatever you want."
They left the restaurant together, walking slowly and chatting until they reached the apartment complex.
"Let's grab another meal next time~!"
"Yeah. Call me whenever."
Taejin and Sohee parted ways in front of the building—they were headed in different directions, after all.
Right after they split up, Taejin arrived at the security office, where Gicheol grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Taejin, last time I told you to buy something a little nicer—did you really have to swipe this much?"
"I was on a date with a woman."
Gicheol looked at him with a face that said for real?, and when Taejin nodded—
"Haa… I'm only letting this slide because it's you."
"Thank you."
Fortunately, Gicheol was a generous senior, and he forgave Taejin for thoroughly running up his card.
Of course—
"So who was it?"
"Just someone I knew from before…"
"Come on, you used my card…"
—he couldn't entirely escape the interrogation.
Anyway, after returning the groceries and the card to Gicheol, Taejin headed back to the dormitory and flopped onto his bed.
It hadn't been a bad day, but he felt completely drained.
Sadly, he didn't get to lie there for long.
Because—
"Right. The points."
He needed to check what he'd earned this time.
Thinking that, Taejin quickly pulled out the smartphone from his pocket and opened the Security Guard App.
And when he checked—
Sexual Processing Duty completed with excellence.
The recipient of the Sexual Processing service is extremely satisfied. Reward greatly increased!
Reward: 2000P
"Holy shit…"
A full two thousand points had come in.
Looking at a number far beyond anything he'd imagined, Taejin decided that all the time he'd spent getting wrung dry hadn't been wasted after all.
And staring at that newly comfortable point balance, he rubbed his hands together, ready to immediately raise the security guard rank he'd been aiming for.
"Alright—points are all gathered up. Time to raise the guard rank and—wait. Hold on…"
Out of nowhere, the sex he'd had with Lee Hanna flashed through his mind.
That was insane…
It had been intense, sure—but more than that, it had been an absolute wringing. Honestly, if he'd been even a little less healthy, he probably would have passed out.
It had been similar with Sohee, too. She'd seemed like it was her first time, so there hadn't been much of an issue—but what if the difficulty of Sexual Processing scaled up along with a Hunter's rank?
In that case, wouldn't it make more sense to invest in his stats first rather than his guard rank?
Of course, maybe not. His goal was still to screw Lee Jihye—that S-class bitch—into submission and take his revenge. Maybe if he went all-in on points right now and ranked up, he'd manage somehow.
But ranks existed for a reason, didn't they?
What if the rank system was a minimum safety mechanism? What if it was telling him that without enough stats to handle things comfortably, he'd be putting himself in danger?
Uggghhh…
His deliberation stretched on.
After a long stretch of agonizing over it, Taejin finally made his decision.
To cut to the chase—
"…Yeah. Even if it takes a little longer, I'm doing this properly."
He decided to raise his stats first.
Honestly, it was hard. He wanted nothing more than to screw that absolute bitch into the ground right this second. But he had to hold back.
Think about it—what if he ranked up, and then his stats were so garbage that during sex he came like a premature ejaculator?
Ugh—I'm cumming!
—Brrrrt!
Ew. What a pathetic premature ejaculator.
There was probably no greater humiliation than that.
So Taejin decided to raise his stats first.
Revenge can wait a little. But if I'm going to do it, I'm doing it perfectly.
Half-assing a revenge job would leave a bad taste in his mouth—and a high chance of everything going to shit.
So he'd prepare thoroughly and without fail.
Having resolved that, Taejin looked back at the Security Guard App.
Alright—I've decided to raise stats first. Next up…
He had to decide which stats to invest in.
And here, the deliberation only deepened.
The two strongest candidates were, of course, Stamina and Virility.
That much was obvious. His whole plan revolved around Sexual Processing services, so those two were critical. Other stats were tempting, sure, but these two were the most necessary—and the ones least likely to mess with his daily life.
So those two pulled at him the hardest. But—
Hmm. Let's raise them just a little first and test what the effects are like.
He decided to approach it carefully. Dumping a ton of points at once and getting nothing for it would be a total waste.
So Taejin put two points each into Stamina and Virility.
And then—
Base stat upgrade cost: 200P
Every 10 points in a stat, the required points increase by 100.
Watching eight hundred precious points vanish in an instant made Taejin's chest ache—but at the same time—
Huh. Doesn't feel like anything's really changed?
Even after putting points into his stats, he didn't notice any particular difference.
It left him puzzled, but he decided to wait and see how things developed.
He still had plenty of time, after all.